Gray Tank Cleaning

[ButterflyBob]

Any recommendations on how to get the grease off and out of the gray tank due which results from the cleaning the pots and pans? The residue seems to get clogged in the drains and in the tank?

[2gypsies1]

Using paper towels or napkins to wipe off pots and dishes doesn't have to be expensive. We all use them throughout the day for other things. Just save them in a plastic bag and use them for this real dirty work. You don't have to use a clean one.

[sdianel_-acct_c]

After we dump the tanks, each time, we use 1 cup of Dawn Platinum dish detergent and 1 cup of Borax powder mixed in hot water in our gray tank. No odor, cuts the grease.

[jffnkrn]

Same here as other post!!! DON'T put grease in the drains. over 18 years of RVing and now on our 5ht unit. Never had any issues. Make sure you wipe out all food stuff before washing. A few paper towels are much less costly than cleaners and a lot less aggravating. Yo might try hooking up to your home dump station and using only super hot water, fill up the tank and let is sit a bit heating up the grease to help make it liquid and then flush, flush and keep flushing with HOT water until grease is gone. And like the others say, don't do that ! ! ! Good Luck & Be Safe ! ! !

[navegator]

I manufactured a wand to access the gray tank, every 4 years I take the vent cover off and insert the wand with the hose attached, I can only hope that I am getting some of the residue out after pouting water with enough dishwasher detergent and driving around the neighborhood for about a half hour.

I got two 10 foot lengths of white pipe and a threaded coupler for the middle union a shutoff valve and a quick hose connector, there is a cap at the busy end with four holes drilled through at a slight angle so that they spray up, down an in between, there is also one smaller going down and a couple at slight angles.

I remove the cap and insert the assembled wand, the wand is long enough that it touches bottom and still sticks out 3 feet, that way the nephew can rotate the whole contraption and agitate the whole thing while I open the valve, I also have a clear section to watch for clear water, I do not need the wand for the toilet since mine is a straight shot.

navegator

[cpaulsen]

I have always used Dawn dish soap and have had no problems. Friends of ours had their gray tank plug....took it to the rv repair shop to have them remove it and found out is was mostly caked up cheap dish soap. They recommended using Dawn all the time.

[2gypsies1]

Don't put coffee grounds down there either. Grease, food stuff, coffee grounds and hair. Can you imagine? Also, don't leave your gray valve open all the time. The crud will just lay there and in your hose. Dump when it's full - just like your black tank. It's no big deal to go outside and pull the lever every few days.

We always wiped our dishes with a used paper towel or napkin before washing. Never had any problems or smells in 16 years of full-timing.

[GMandJM]

If Dawn doesn't work for you, try Calgon.

Put it in the grey tank via the sink drain and fill the tank. Let it sit for awhile (or even drive around so it can slosh a bit). Drain your tank and rinse/flush it with fresh water.

Repeat if necessary.

[amxpress]

Many have found Dawn to be the best detergent to use in their RV. As mentioned, we always wipe excessive grease off before washing them with hot water and Dawn. I have occasionally poured some grey tank stuff from CW to help if there's an odor.

[DutchmenSport]

You'll need to keep your pipes wet (like in your house), but a simple degreaser emzine eater from any home depot type store will also clean the pipes. But it needs to stay moist and water run through it to flush and expand the emzines. Once they've eaten everything, they die, flush on down and pipes clean.

As stated above, never put grease down your drain (at home don't do it either).

We have never put grease down the drain in the camper (or at home). We always wipe the pots and pans, and even the dishes with paper towel first, to where the pan or plate is practically clean. Then use a good dishwashing liquid to clean the rest of it. Toss paper towel in the trash.

We never put food particles down the sink (especially in the camper.). We almost always wash outside, and any dishes that do get clean in the inside sink is usually just glasses and coffee cups at best. Even outside, we wipe with paper first.

Do we go through a lot of paper towel.... yep! But's that's easier to deal with than clogged pipes.

[louiskathy]

coat your hands with cold bacon grease... now put a generous amount of dish soap on them... run cold water over your hands. How much water did it take to get your hands clean? Probably quite a bit of water and you needed a paper towel to really wipe it off. Rinsing alone is kinda endless.

coat your hands with cold bacon grease again... now put some distilled vinegar to them. A TBSP at a time. Now rinse your hands with cold water.

Did one work better than the other? I would tend to think the distilled vinegar would be a good de-greaser... at least better than dish soap.

Don't use cheap dish soap.

Don't put crud, like grease down into your gray tank.

If you have to... dump your pan of greasy dish water down into the black tank (where you can hose it out) rather than in the gray tank where you can't do much to flush it out.

Now, go buy 10 gallons of CLEANING (5% acidity) distilled vinegar... pour it into your gray tank and go for a drive. Don't worry about rinsing it out.

JMHO

[2chiefsRus]

If you have access to the top of your gray tank (which we do), install a six inch deck plate in the top of the tank. Then from time to time, spray the inside of the tank through the deck plate. Works great for us.

[coolmom42]

Wipe out your grease from pots and pans with a paper towel and put it in the trash. Do not put it in your sink!

If you already have a grease issue.... put a generous amount of Dawn dish detergent (best degreaser) down the sink. Follow with HOT water until your gray tank is full. Drive around a while to mix it up. Drain the gray tank and repeat.

Be careful of putting any chemicals in the tank. There are lots of de-greasers out there but some of them might damage the plastics.

[SoundGuy]

ButterflyBob wrote:
Any recommendations on how to get the grease off and out of the gray tank due which results from the cleaning the pots and pans? The residue seems to get clogged in the drains and in the tank?

I never used to bother with any sort of grey tank treatment, simply relying on wiping down dishes before washing and any dish soap going into the tank to keep it relatively clean. Nonetheless, grey water can be awfully stinky, particularly in hot weather and especially when it's being off loaded so last year I started treating the tank with Elemonate Grey Water Deodorizer by Walex and found it really does eliminate tank odour while also ridding the tank of any food bits and grease. A very effective product IMO. :B

[path1]

Not easy...

first, try to keep as much stuff out of drain as possible. Such as wiping pots and pans with something that hits the trash not the tank.

But your still going to get stuff down there and it will build up after some time.

second, Not unusual for me to toss in some dawn dish soap and let it bounce around when going down the road, and then to give a good flush out when I know I'm getting to a place with full hook ups.

Don't overlook one of the big culprits is hair from shower.